Ever After
by gemjam
Summary: After two and a half years of island life, the survivors are finally getting rescued. But Boone isn't so sure he can keep hold of Jack back in the real world. Mostly BooneJack but with the other castaways too. Completed.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: An idea that came to me after reading far too much slash fanfic, that stuff is more addictive than Charlie's heroin. Anyway, hope you enjoy and remember, feedback is very, very welcome.**

It had been six months since Sayid had got the makeshift transceiver working and nearly three weeks since he'd gotten a reply. No one could believe that anyone had survived the crash of flight 815, let alone that they'd been living on the island for two and a half years. But Sayid and Jack had managed to convince them that they were alive and had been for sometime and could they please get rescued now? They all knew it wasn't going to be as simple as that, however. Sure, now people were actively looking for them, but they didn't know where to look. No one knew where the island was. Jack relayed the clues he'd gotten from the pilot the day they crashed and the search team seemed to be closing in, but they knew it could be a while before they got off the island for good.

Boone walked down the beach and spotted Shannon sitting alone, staring into the ocean. It reminded Boone of when they first crashed and Shannon would sit and watch for rescue boats, insisting they would be saved any minute now. Boone smiled at the memory, so much had happened since then.

He walked over to her and sat beside her, joining her in gazing out at the horizon. They sat in a comfortable silence for a beat before Boone turned and looked at her as she ran a hand over her pregnant belly. The estimate was that she was around six months gone, apparently Sayid made more than a transceiver back then, but no one could be sure without the proper check-ups.

"Sabrina's not gonna be impressed that you got yourself knocked up," Boone said, his gaze heading back to the ocean.

"Oh, please, she's gonna go postal when she finds out your gay," Shannon replied.

"I'm not gay, I'm bi," Boone explained.

"Whatever, you're the toy boy to some doctor and she's not going to like it."

To the casual observer it may sound like nothing had changed between the two during their time on the island, but listening a little closer it becomes obvious that this is a light-hearted parody of their former bickering matches from times gone by. And boy did they have some good ones.

"I'm starting to think that the fact we're still alive will be a major inconvenience to her day at this point. Anything else will just be the icing on the cake," Boone said, a little distant.

"I dunno," Shannon mused, "having the CEO cheat death and get in all the papers can't be bad for business."

"Maybe," Boone conceded.

"And she can do mine and Sayid's wedding which will probably beof media interest too so there's a reason to keep me sweet for a while. And I like being kept sweet."

"I noticed," Boone replied dryly.

"Speaking of which, I could kill for a chocolate bar right now," Shannon said, hormones getting the better of her. "Cravings are hell when all you have is a choice of boar or fish."

Boone smiled at her. "There's always that wide selection of random fruits," he suggested.

"Ick!" Shannon dismissed with a roll of her eyes. She looked down at her belly. "God, I can't wait to get a scan of this little fellow, see what she's up to in there."

"She?" Boone asked, looking at her bump.

"I say 'she', Sayid says 'he'. I don't really care, to tell you the truth, so long as it's healthy." She paused and then added, "Well, she would be cooler I guess cos then I'd have someone to pass all my fashion tips onto and then maybe my pre-crash life wouldn't be a complete wipeout."

"Shan, your life is not a wipeout," Boone insisted.

Shannon once again found herself looking at her belly and smiled fondly. "Not anymore," she said a little dreamily.

Boone smiled and decided not to push the point. She had made herself feel better, there was no point getting into it now. But then she looked up at him a little sad, tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

Shannon smiled through the tears and the smile seemed genuine enough, but something still bothered Boone. "Nothing," she said, "It's nothing. I just..." she trailed off.

Boone looked concerned. "What?"

"I'm gonna miss this place," she finally said. "It's stupid, I know it's stupid. The last two and a half years I've wanted nothing but to get off this Godforsaken rock and now that's it's actually happening all I can think is how I don't wanna leave it all behind."

Boone nodded. He knew exactly what she meant. Their stay on the island hadn't been easy, in fact most days it had been a nightmare, but they had got through it, they had bonded, they had formed their own little community here, their own little world, and as much as they all wanted off, they also didn't want it to end, because there was a terrible feeling of 'now what?' that would inevitably crash down on them once they reached the mainland. Would they ever see each other again? How do you go back to your life after something like this happens?

For Boone this worry was multiplied because he wasn't just at stake of losing friends, he was at stake of losing Jack and Jack had been his world for the last two and a half years as much as this island had.

Boone was bisexual and Boone was okay with that, he had come to terms with that, sure he hadn't told Sabrina that, but he really was getting around to it. Jack, however, was not bisexual. Well, not pre-crash anyway. Boone could never really get his head around why Jack had chosen him, what it was about him that made Jack shy away from his usual choice in partner, shy away from Kate who Boone was sure Jack could have had if he'd wanted. But apparently Jack hadn't wanted Kate. Jack had wanted Boone. For Boone, this came so far out of left field that it took him two weeks, and Shannon's constant jibes, to realise that Jack was trying to come onto him. It then took him another two weeks to come to terms with the fact that no, Jack hadn't suffered a concussion during the crash and really was quite interested in him. After that, things had headed slowly but surely towards the solid coupledom they were enjoying now.

Solid? Was it? Boone wasn't so sure. Not anymore. If they were to stay on this island for ever more then Boone was reasonably confident that he could keep hold of Jack. But back on the mainland? Back in the states? Back in the real world? That was a whole other story. Would Jack really want to add a boyfriend into the mix of his old life? Was there any room for Boone in his life of hospitals and spinal cords and no doubt hot nurses who would clearly adore Jack, especially now with his muscles built up form the physically challenging life they lived on the island.

Boone turned to Shannon, and he could feel the beginnings of tears stinging his own eyes too. "Nothing's ever gonna be the same again, is it?" he asked her.

She shook her head sadly. Theywere bothrather unsuccessfulat holding back the tears any further and fell into an embrace together. Shannon laughed a little. "Hey, I got all these pregnancy hormones shooting around my system, what's your excuse?"

Boone shrugged a little. Shannon remained in the embrace but looked back out to the horizon. Boone followed her gaze out but wasn't sure if he wanted to see anything or not.


	2. Chapter 2

So, this is it, they were finally getting off the island that had been the bane of Jack's life for the past two and a half years. Well, any day now, that is. Any day. Jack hoped soon. Getting off this place would be like heaven. Ever since he and Sayid had talked to the search party over the transceiver Jack had been having dreams about comfy beds and running water and oven cooked food and cable TV. And these were actual dreams as well, real asleep, have no control over them dreams. Jack wondered if he should worry about this.

He walked down the beach and saw Boone and Shannon in an embrace, both scanning the horizon, and his heart swelled a little, they were just so darn cute. Jack knew the second he met the pair of them how much they cared for each other. And not just in the way that Boone had one night admitted to Jack that they cared for each other in Sydney the night before boarding the fatal flight 815 but in a much deeper way than that. They loved each other but it wasn't the romantic love that they seemed to have it confused with, it was something else, something better. But Jack could tell that neither of them had much experience of love, romantic or otherwise.

Mind you, he wasn't one to talk on that front. His parents, well, he really didn't want to rehash that whole portion of his life again but needless to say they weren't the best example. And then there was Sarah. Sarah was the best example. Sarah was sweet and kind and patient and so out of his life so why was he bringing all this up? Because he had to. Because repression isn't healthy. But really, in all honesty, there wasn't a whole lot worth dwelling on. Sarah got pregnant and Sarah lost the baby and Jack threw himself into work and their marriage went down the pan. End of story. Honest. Well, almost. Except for this stupid little voice inside of Jack that kept questioning him. One simple question. 'If Sarah hadn't lost the baby, do you think you would have lasted?' But Jack didn't like that question because he was fairly sure the answer was 'no' and if that were true then it was Jack's fault and not the baby's fault and Jack didn't want that hanging over his head so Jack didn't answer the question. Jack ignored the question.

And then there was Boone. Jack really couldn't explain that. He wasn't gay. He wasn't bi. Not even a little bit. The thought of being with another man had never occurred to him. Ever. But here he was, with another man, and he couldn't think of life any other way. He's tried to work out exactly what had happened so many times that he thought his head would explode but he could never work out what it was about Boone that made him fall so hard.

That first day they were on the island, the day of the crash, Jack woke up in the jungle and emerged on the beach to his worst nightmare. And then, while he was trying to work triage and save as many people as he could he came across a young lifeguard who couldn't even perform CPR. Jack had agreed that attempting a tracheotomy with a pen would be a good idea simply to get said incompetent lifeguard away from him. He revived Rose, helped out some others, and began to wind down a little, the main body of the crisis apparently over. But then aforementioned incompetent lifeguard came up to him with a handful of pens and somehow Jack fell in love with him. Two and a half years later he was still trying to work that one out.

Jack made his way over to Boone and Shannon. "You guys getting all emotional over here?" he asked as he stood by them.

The two of them pulled away from each other a little and looked up at Jack.

"I have hormones and apparently he's just a big girl," Shannon explained as she wiped a tear from her face.

Jack smiled and sat next to Boone, resting a hand on his thigh. Shannon pulled away fully to give them a little space, placing her hands back on her stomach.

"So, any sign of this rescue party yet?" Jack asked.

"No such luck," Shannon said. "I wish they'd hurry up, I am not having a baby on an island. Not this island anyway."

"I think you've got some time to spare, Shannon," Jack assured her. "How are things going with junior, anyway?"

"Well, she's kicking the hell out of me, so I'm guessing okay," Shannon said, trying to sound put-upon but there was a fondness in her voice she couldn't hide. "Have either of you seen Sayid, by the way?"

"He was at the caves when I left, I'm guessing he's still there," Jack said.

"In that case I think I'll go for a walk, if you boys will excuse me," said Shannon as she awkwardly got to her feet. Jack could tell that she hated not being delicate but he could also tell that she loved being a mother-to-be just a little bit more. Only a little, mind.

As Shannon left, Boone took hold of Jack's hand that sat on his thigh and gave it a little squeeze. Jack gave him a warm smile that he got double in return.

"So," Boone began, "What are you going to do when we get back to the states. First thing you're gonna do?"

"Well, we're probably going to be put in a hospital somewhere and then we'll be questioned endlessly and then there's the whole media circus that'll ensue..."

Boone looked annoyed and rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, you know that's not what I meant. Play the game."

"Oh, are we playing a game?" Jack asked suggestively.

"Ideally, supposing you just got back to your own apartment, what would you do?" Boone asked, staying, Jack thought, upsettingly well focused.

What did Jack plan to do when he got back to his life? If his life was still there to get back to. Would there still be a position for him at the hospital? Would he even want to go back there? It'd been so long since anyone had called him Dr Shepherd. Well, except for Boone on occasion but that was hardly in the professional sense. Not that Jack was complaining. But what of his life? Did he even want it back? Did he ever want it to begin with? No, he wasn't going to start that. No dwelling on past choices, no parental issues, no wondering 'what if?' His life is his life and he's happy so that's that.

"Me?" Jack asked, turning his attention back to Boone. "I would take a nice, long, hot shower." He stared off at someplace only he could see and added almost dreamily, "I might even let you join me."

Boone smiled and gave him a friendly shove. "You really think you have a choice?"

Jack hoped not. 


	3. Chapter 3

Sabrina stared at the TV in the kitchen of her far too big house. The phone number at the bottom of the newscast would put you through to telephone operators who had a list of the forty-something survivors of flight 815, who were now all safely in a hospital somewhere in LA. But Sabrina would finish her coffee before she opened that Pandora's box. Two and a half years was a long time to come to terms with things and she was fairly sure this glint of hope wasn't healthy. The chances of one of the survivors being her son was slim so she was going to finish her coffee first. 

But the coffee tasted bitter and Sabrina let it go cold. She considered allowing this to disqualify her from making the call but she knew it had to be done. She just couldn't face losing her son all over again. She took a deep breath, picked up the phone, dialled the number and waited on the line.

"Flight 815 hotline," a rather too cheery voice chimed down the phone.

"Erm, hi," Sabrina stumbled, a little put off. "Yes, I'm calling to enquire about my son. He was on the flight."

"What was his name, please?" the voice asked.

'Was?' Sabrina thought. That didn't fill her with confidence. "Boone," she replied. "Boone Carlisle."

"Boone Carlisle. Hold one moment please," the voice said as Sabrina heard typing in the background. She could feel her heart pounding out of her chest. 'Don't get your hopes up' she kept telling herself.. 'Just don't get your hopes up.'

"Yes, we have a Boone Carlisle," the voice chirped back.

Sabrina was stunned into silence, she couldn't even reply. Boone was alive? After all this time, all this mourning, he was alive?

"Miss?"

Sabrina suddenly realised she was holding her breath. "Is he all right? How is he?" she asked.

"I'm afraid I don't have that information, all I have is a list of survivors," the voice replied. "They'll be releasing most people today, you can contact the hospital for further details."

"Okay. Thank you," Sabrina said, still a little dazed.

"No problem. Have a nice day," the voice replied, and the cheeriness didn't seem quite so out of place this time.

Then suddenly a thought struck Sabrina. "Shannon!" she said suddenly. In all the confusion she'd almost forgotten about Shannon, and Shannon wasn't one to let herself be forgotten about easily.

"Excuse me?" the voice asked, clearly a little thrown.

"Shannon Rutherford. She was on the plane too," Sabrina explained. "Do you have Shannon too?"

"Shannon Rutherford," the voice mused, typing on the computer again. "Yes, we have Shannon Rutherford too," the replied.

Sabrina couldn't believe it. Boone and Shannon were both alive. She had her family back. Well, what was left of it. She was so overwhelmed she couldn't even react.

"Is there anyone else, miss?" the voice asked.

Sabrina tuned back into the conversation. "What?"

"Did you know anyone else of the flight?"

"No. No, that was it. Thank you," Sabrina managed to get out.

"Well, you must be very happy they're both alive," the voice said.

"Yes," Sabrina said blankly. "Yes. Happy. Very happy."

"Goodbye then," the voice said and it stuck Sabrina that she should get off the line and let this person get back to work.

"Yes, sorry, goodbye," said Sabrina as she put the phone down and then stared at it. Hospital. She had to ring the hospital and find out how Boone and Shannon were. She picked up the phone again.


	4. Chapter 4

Boone woke up in the hospital but refused to open his eyes, wrapping the blankets around him. He had heard that hospital beds were uncomfortable but compared to the cave floor that he'd been sleeping on for the last two plus years, this was heaven. 

But then he couldn't resist it anymore, he wanted to sneak a look at Jack. It was like some kind of torture sleeping this far away from him. Sure, he was only in the next bed, but Boone was used to being snuggled in his arms. His strong, muscular but oh so caring and gentle arms. Boone opened his eyes with a dreamy smile on his lips. The bed next to his was empty. Boone sat up slightly and looked around the ward. No Jack. There was Sawyer reading a magazine with his half-and-half glasses, Walt and Hurley playing backgammon and Charlie quietly strumming his guitar, but no Jack. He laid back down. Jack used to work here so he was probably just catching up with some old friends, Boone rationalised. In fact, knowing Jack, he was probably trying to talk them into letting him perform spinal surgery.

"Boone!"

He heard Shannon's voice and rolled over to see her coming towards him, an excited look on her face and a brown envelope in her hand. He sat up.

"Hey, Shan," he said. "What's up?"

She came and sat on the edge of his bed, forcing him to move up. "I've got something to show you, check this out." She pulled a sonogram out of the envelope and held it up to him. "Check it out, it's my baby!" she said excitedly.

Boone smiled as he took the picture off a very proud Shannon. "Wow, Shannon, that's awesome," he said.

"I know!" said Shannon. "And it's a girl."

"So, pink dresses and finishing school all the way?" Boone teased.

"No, I want her to be more grounded than I was. I am not gonna raise a brat like my parents did. Not that it's all their fault, I was a brat cos I wanted to be a brat..." she trailed off. "Anyway, like Sayid would ever raise a brat. He can be a pushover, sure, but he makes people stand on their own two feet. I'm evidence of that."

"Hey, have you seen Jack?" Boone asked.

Shannon rolled her eyes. "What, we can't talk about me for more than five seconds before it comes back to the doctor?"

"I just wondered where he was, he wasn't here when I woke up," Boone explained.

"God, you got it bad, Boone," Shannon smiled.

"Have you seen him?" Boone asked.

Shannon shook her head. "He's probably chatting up a nurse somewhere."

"Shut up," Boone retorted lamely.

"Come on, you wanna go hit the vending machine?" Shannon suggested.

"I'm not hungry," Boone replied.

"Well I am and you're paying so get out of bed," Shannon said with a friendly shove.

"Should have seen that one coming," said Boone as he followed Shannon out to the hall.

As he reached the hall he saw that Shannon had frozen to the spot, looking at something a little edgily. Visions of monsters and savages and out of control boar ran through his head before he reminded himself that they were back in the real world now and those things were extremely unlikely.

"Shannon, what's wrong?"

But then he saw what Shannon was looking at. Sabrina. He wasn't quite sure how to process seeing her. Not yet. And judging by the way that Sabrina was looking at he and Shannon, the feeling was mutual.

"Mom," he said, a little blindly. "Hi."

"Hello," she said blankly. She then suddenly rushed forward and pulled Boone into a hug. He was surprised enough that it took him a moment to hug back. He couldn't remember the last time his mom gave him a hug. It's not that she was a particularly cold mother, well not lovey-dovey or anything but not the wicked witch of the west either, but she had certainly deemed him too old to be hugged many years ago. She then pulled Shannon into the embrace too which really did throw him for six. He couldn't ever remember her hugging Shannon, not even when she and Adam first got married and Shannon was still a kid. Shannon was obviously suffering the same confusion as Boone as they exchanged a look. Sabrina then released them and took a step back, it was almost as if it had never happened.

"So you two are okay?" Sabrina asked. "You look okay. You look good actually." Boone then saw her eyes go down to Shannon's pregnant belly. Shannon instinctively placed her hands over her bump protectively. "You're pregnant," Sabrina stated.

"Little bit, yeah," Shannon replied, quieter than Boone was used to.

"That's, erm, congratulations," Sabrina said.

"Thanks." Shannon gave a little smile but Boone could tell she was still on edge. "His name's Sayid."

Sabrina looked at her blankly. "The baby?"

"My boyfriend," Shannon replied. "Or fiancé. Husband. He would be my husband if we weren't on an island. We would have been married by now, I mean. I think."

"So, what about you Boone? You find yourself a girlfriend?" Sabrina asked.

Boone noticed Shannon looking at him but refused to make eye-contact with her. "No," he replied. "No girlfriend."

"Well..." Sabrina began, but she was cut off by Boone.

"Mom, I have to tell you something," Boone rushed out.

Sabrina looked concerned. "What?"

"Let's, erm, let's go get a drink, okay?" he suggested.

Sabrina nodded and they headed to the cafeteria. "Good luck," he heard Shannon say quietly as he walked past her.

Boone stood in line at the hospital cafeteria, trying to think of a way to come out to his mother, which was not an easy task.

"There you are."

He looked up to see Jack stood by his side. He quickly glanced at his mother but she was looking out the window.

"I went to look for you on the ward," Jack continued. "Apparently you were last seen heading to the vending machines with Shannon."

"Erm, yeah," Boone stalled, trying to think of a polite way to get rid of him for the time being.

"Oh well, found you now," Jack said as he leaned in and kissed Boone tenderly on the lips. Boone jerked away quickly. Jack gave him a look. "Are you okay?"

Boone looked back over to the table where his mother was sitting and, to his horror, she was looking back. And judging by the look on her face, she'd seen the kiss. Jack followed Boone's gaze.

"Who's that?" He asked.

"That's my mom," Boone replied, not taking his eyes off Sabrina.

"Oh."


	5. Chapter 5

Jack couldn't sleep. But then that was nothing new. Jack hadn't been able to sleep since they left the island. He was adjusting, he told himself. Things would be back to normal soon enough. Whatever that meant anymore. Boone, on the other, slept like a baby. He could fall asleep at the drop of a hat, had been able to the whole time that Jack had known him. Let him lay down and two seconds later the boy was gone. It amazed Jack, it really did. 

He shifted positions in the bed and stared at the ceiling. It was no use, he wasn't sleeping tonight. He carefully slipped out of bed, trying not to disturb Boone, like that was even possible, and pulled on some sweat pants.

Jack walked down the corridor of Sabrina's house and tried to remember which room was which. Okay, so it wasn't the biggest house in the world but, really, how many reception rooms did one person need? And it was just one person. Which is why, Jack guessed, Sabrina had insisted that he and Boone come and stay with her when they left the hospital. She even convinced Shannon and Sayid to use it as a stepping stone while they looked for a house with a nursery that Shannon approved of. Mind you, it's not like any of them had much of a choice. After two and a half years of missing, presumed dead, none of them had anywhere to go back to, their former properties long since sold on.

Jack moved down the hall and opened one of the doors to find Sabrina sat stretched out on one of the sofas, quietly nursing a drink.

"Oh, sorry," Jack said. "I didn't realise anyone was still up."

"Me neither," said Sabrina. "Can't sleep?"

"I'm having a few adjustment problems, I think," Jack explained. "Something to do with the time zones and not being in a cave."

Sabrina smiled. "Well, you may as well join me."

Jack came fully into the room and took a seat on the other sofa. "Can't sleep either?" he asked her.

"No. I think I'm having a few adjustment problems of my own," Sabrina replied. "Can I interest you in a drink?"

"Sure, thanks," Jack said.

Sabrina poured him out a drink and passed it over. He took a sip and remained in silence for a minute. "You know, this is a really nice house," Jack said as he looked around the room.

"You don't have to make small talk with me, Jack," Sabrina told him.

Jack acknowledged her comment with a small nod and then looked down at his drink, unsure how to continue the conversation.

"I've never seen him like this over anyone before," Sabrina stated.

Jack looked up at her.

"There's been girls, some he's been serious about, some not so much, but he was never with them the way he is around you," Sabrina said.

Jack smiled.

"Of course, now I learn there's been boys as well, none of whom I ever had the pleasure of meeting..." she continued. "But he did explain to me why I never met any of them. He said that if he was gay he would of told me but because he was bi there was a fifty/fifty chance he would end up with a woman so there was a fifty/fifty chance that he'd never have to tell me. He said he was only ever going to go through all that if he knew the guy was a keeper. If he was the one."

Jack's smile grew and he looked back down at his drink, almost embarrassed. He'd heard all this before of course, from Boone himself, but it warmed Jack a little to know that he'd told his mother he was special to him too. It's one thing telling the guy you're sleeping with that he means the world to you but it's quite another to relay this information to your mother.

"Thanks," Jack said.

Sabrina shrugged. "I didn't say anything about you. I'm just passing on what my son said."

Jack looked up and gave her a wry smile. He then locked eyes with her, a little more serious. "Well, he means the world to me too. Feel free to pass that on," Jack said.

"Oh, I think he already knows," Sabrina assured him. She then shifted in her seat as if changing tactics. "So, do you have a start date for the hospital yet?"

"Erm, yeah, next week. I can't wait to get back into some kind of routine. Maybe I'll be able to sleep then," Jack said.

"Things will settle down for you," Sabrina assured him.

"You know, you're not at all how I pictured you," Jack said and then suddenly regretted it.

"Did Boone make me out to be an ogre or something?" Sabrina asked.

"No, no, nothing like that," Jack rushed out. "He just suggested that maybe you could be a little, I don't know, reserved?" Jack ventured.

He was relieved to see Sabrina smile. "A lot's changed since then. Having your son die, it alters a few things. And getting him back again, well, that just turns everything on it's head."

"Yeah, I should imagine that's quite something," Jack said.

"You guys having a party without me?"

Jack and Sabrina both turned to the door to see a rather sleepy Boone standing there. Jack smiled at the image, hair stuck up, eyes half closed against the light, leaning on the door frame in an attempt to hold his own weight, something that he knew Boone tried not to do if he could help it, especially when Jack was close by. He was aware of the fact that Boone could be a little co-dependent, which used to terrify the hell out of him, but now there was something oh so cute about it and he just wanted to wrap Boone up in his arms and never let go.

"I was just heading off to bed actually," Sabrina said as she put down her glass and stood up. "I'll see you both in the morning."

"Uh-huh," Boone managed, clearly dying to lay down.

"Goodnight, Sabrina," Jack said and got a smile in response as she exited the room.

Once she had gone, Boone moved over to the couch where Jack was. He rearranged Jack's folded legs so they stretched across the sofa and then laid down next to him, snuggling down. "Couldn't sleep again?" he asked.

"Nope," Jack replied, wrapping his arms around Boone.

"So, tell me, Dr. Shepherd," Boone began. "If you had a patient who came in complaining of endless sleepless nights, what would you prescribe?"

"I'd tell them that I was a spinal surgeon and that's a question they should really take up with their clinic doctor," Jack replied.

Boone looked up at Jack, not impressed. "I'm not too tired to kick your ass."

"Yes you are," Jack stated.

"Just answer the question," Boone insisted.

"I'd prescribe sleeping pills," he begrudgingly answered, knowing exactly where this was going.

"So, what happened to all that 'physician heal thyself' crap?" Boone asked.

"Look, I don't need them, okay?" Jack replied.

"Oh, really? So you're asleep now I take it?"

Jack gave him a look. "I don't wanna get into all that stuff. If I start taking sleeping pills now then I'll just have to come off them later and I'll have the same problems then as I'm having now. I'd rather just get it over with first time around," Jack explained.

"Fine," Boone said, clearly a little annoyed. But Jack guessed it was more the fact that he was wrong than the fact his advice was being ignored.

They lay in silence for a minute before Jack looked down at Boone, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, any second now he was gonna start drooling on Jack's shirt.

"You're going back to sleep, aren't you?" Jack asked.

Boone didn't bother to open his eyes. "Well what do you expect, Jack? It's like 3 am."

"You didn't have to get up," Jack stated.

"I don't like it when you're not there," Boone replied simply.

"Well, look, I'm not sleepy, so you should just go and I'll join you in a little while," Jack suggested.

Boone looked up at Jack and gave him a look that Jack guessed was supposed to be seductive but his eyes were too sleepy to convey it fully. "I know something that would make you sleepy," he offered.

"You're too sleepy to make me sleepy right now," Jack pointed out.

Boone shrugged a little. "You could make yourself sleepy and think of me while you're doing it," he suggested.

Jack gave him a look. "How about we go back to bed and I settle for a cuddle?" he offered.

"I'm not sure what you get out of that deal," Boone mused.

"I get you. Now move before I change my mind and go with the whiskey instead," Jack said.

That earned him a sleepy but clearly thankful smile and the two of them headed back to the bedroom, Boone leaning on Jack all the way.

**Author's note: If you liked it please let me know and leave some feedback. It's just that little button down there...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note- Hey Faran, just wanted to say thanks for your fantastic detailed reviews, I'm glad you're enjoying the story. So long as your still reading I'll carry on with this. I plan to look over your stories today and return the favour, it's the least I can do. And Paradigm Shift is my favourite story too, it's a brilliant piece of work.**

**Thanks for my other reviews too, I really appreciate it. Okay, on with the next chapter...**

"Shannon, can you hurry it up a bit?" Boone shouted up the stairs.

"Yeah, I heard you the first five times, Boone," Shannon called back, not sounding the least bit interested.

"You're gonna be late. Do you know how embarrassing it is to turn up to an appointment late?" Stupid question, Boone thought to himself. "Of course you do, you're never on time for anything," he added, almost to himself.

Shannon came out of the bathroom and stood at the top of the stairs, looking down at him.

"Will you chill out? It's not you're appointment. And even if we set off now, you're still gonna be early to meet Jack," Shannon stated. "Unless you want to get there early so you can drool over him for a while." She gave him a wicked smile. Boone chose to ignore it.

"I'm thinking of you. And Sayid, who's probably sat there waiting for you right now," Boone pointed out.

"It's not easy to get ready when you're this size, you know," Shannon retorted, but Boone could tell it was a last ditch attempt. Either way, he really wasn't in the mood to start something with her.

"I'm gonna wait in the car," he replied wearily, heading away from the stairs, not bothering to look if Shannon was relieved or disappointed.

As Boone guessed, Sayid was already sat in the waiting area when Boone and Shannon arrived. Boone noticed a flash a relief when he finally saw Shannon coming towards him. He checked his watch. Yep, as usual Shannon was running fashionably late.

"You haven't gone in yet?" Shannon asked, taking a seat next to Sayid.

"No. Apparently they are running later than you are," Sayid stated rather good naturedly. "Anyway, it's not like we could start without you."

"No, I guess not," Shannon conceded.

Boone looked around the hall but there was no one else around.

"Well he's not gonna be up here is he?" Shannon stated, as though he were stupid. And apparently he was cos he couldn't quite connect what she was saying.

"Huh?" he asked distantly as he turned to face her.

"Jack," she replied matter-of-factly. "Why don't you go look downstairs for him?"

"Oh, no, he won't be ready yet, I'll just wait with you guys for a while," he said as he sat down. He then realised that that was probably highly inappropriate and maybe they wanted some couple time to talk about whatever it is you talk about before you go see your OB-GYN. He stood up again. "Or I could just go now. I'll go now."

"Boone, sit down, you idiot," Shannon said offhandedly as she picked up a magazine from the table in front of her.

"Right, okay," Boone replied as he sat back down and wondered when he stopped having the ability to think for himself.

Shannon flicked through the magazine, not looking particularly interested in any of it. It was probably all last season, Boone concluded. She then turned to Sayid.

"Sayid, I'm thirsty, could you get me soda?" she asked.

"But they could call us in any minute," Sayid replied.

At least someone around here respects appointments and schedules, Boone thought.

"But I'm really thirsty. Please?" Shannon was giving Sayid the Shannon Rutherford 'Do what I want and I'll make all your dreams come true' look. Boone thought back to how many times he'd fallen for that one over the years. Too many, he concluded.

"Okay," Sayid replied a little begrudgingly as he got up and went in search of a vending machine.

Shannon turned to look at Boone briefly before scanning the magazine again. "You okay?" she asked, directed more at her reading material than him. "You seem a little... insane today."

"I'm okay," he replied.

"Cool," she said, the conversation apparently ended.

He looked at her sideways, trying to work out if she was still listening, still interested. She brought up the subject, he reasoned. He figured she was trying to take an interest, maybe he should reward that. Or maybe she didn't really want to know, maybe she was being polite. No, this was Shannon, Shannon didn't do polite.

"Hey, Shan, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," she replied, still not looking up.

"Have you, erm..." he began, realising phrasing such a question may pose a slight problem. "Since we got back. From the island. Have you and Sayid, y'know, been... intimate?"

"You mean like sex?" she asked easily, looking up at him.

Of course Shannon wouldn't be embarrassed by that. "Yeah, sex," he replied. "Have you? I mean, I don't want details, just a yes or no."

Shannon looked amused. "What do you think I'm going to tell you?" she asked. "And 'yes' to answer your question," she replied, a little incredulous.

Great, Boone thought, I'm a freak and my relationships a sham. "Oh," he replied simply trying not to give anything away. But this was Shannon and judging by the way she was looking at him he'd just given everything away.

"You and Jack haven't, I take it," she said, kinder than he expected. She really was getting better at this.

"Not quite," he admitted. Though even that was stretching it. They hadn't gotten close to anything remotely good since they got back.

"Well, y'know, I guess things are different now, I'm sure you guys just need a little time," Shannon suggested.

"Yeah," Boone replied vaguely. Like that wasn't something he'd told himself a million times. It was starting to wear thin.

"Jack hasn't been into it since you got back?" Shannon asked, suddenly being far more intuitive than Boone liked.

"Not really, I guess," Boone shrugged. "I mean, there's been all the kisses and cuddles and touching and stuff but I'm just getting a little restless for something else. But I can't blame it on Jack, I haven't exactly been into it either. I just keep, kind of, waiting for my libido to get back from the island."

"Maybe it's a little jet lagged," Shannon considered.

Boone smiled. "Maybe," he conceded.

"Or maybe you and Jack could play a little game of doctors and nurses," she suggested.

Boone rolled his eyes at her. "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind, Shan," he replied.

"What did you have in mind? Don't build it up, let it happen. I bet your just making too big a deal out of it and you're psyching yourself out. Make it fun, lighten it up, then maybe you can enjoy it," Shannon said, turning back to her magazine, her job apparently done.

Boone thought about Jack in his hospital scrubs and allowed that he did look hot in them. Maybe he could get him to wear them at home.

Sayid came back down the hall carrying a can of soda. He sat down and handed it to Shannon.

"Thank you," she with a butter-wouldn't-melt smile, giving him a kiss on the cheek. She went to open the can but then turned back to Sayid. "It's not diet," she said, not sounding too happy.

"Shannon, I hardly think it matters right now," Sayid replied.

Oh God, Boone thought.

"What?" Shannon asked, all niceties now thoroughly out the window. "You mean because I'm fat?"

"Shannon, I never said you were fat. You're not fat, you're pregnant," Sayid explained patiently.

"Pregnant and fat," she replied. "Why else would I not need a diet soda?"

"Shannon, you know that's not what I meant. Surely if I thought you were fat I would give you a diet soda," Sayid continued, his voice level.

Boone stood up, looking at his watch. "Yeah, I think Jack should be ready now so I'm just gonna head downstairs, I'll catch you guys later." He didn't wait for a reply as he was fairly sure he wasn't going to get one.

He headed over to the elevator and pressed the down button, trying to tune out the background noise of the argument. Could you call it an argument when Sayid remained level the whole time? Boone didn't know how he managed it, Shannon could make anyone lose their rag, she knew exactly what buttons to press. But this argument wasn't really about him, it was about her. It was about being insecure but being too proud to show it. But that was just Shannon all over. She was getting better, but she still needed a little room to grow.

The elevator arrived and Boone stepped inside, pressing the button.


	7. Chapter 7

It had been a long week but Jack had made it. Well, nearly made it. He still had the afternoon to go but he had a little Boone pick-me-up to come before he had to face that part of the day. The hospital had, of course, suggested that he start off part-time whilst he found his feet again but Jack was never one to do things by halves so he had insisted that he was jumping straight back in at the deep end. They then suggested that maybe Jack would like to talk to someone about his time on the island and the stresses that he was surely under but Jack once again reclined. Jack's feelings were his own and he liked to keep it that way. He didn't want to dwell and he didn't want to deal with things, he just wanted to be allowed to get on with his life.

He walked down the hall on his way to the nurse's station when he got stopped short by a patient's overzealously religious girlfriend.

"Dr. Shepherd, do you have a moment?" Tina asked, looking at him ever so hopefully.

"What can I do for you?" Jack asked as he glanced down the hall to the nurse's station. Boone was already there and talking to the new and rather attractive nurse, Maria. Jack might be dating a man but he wasn't blind.

"We're holding a prayer service for Bobby tonight and I just wondered if you might be interested in joining us?" Tina looked at him with wide eyes.

"That's a very nice thought, Tina, but I'm not a religious person," Jack explained, attempting to excuse himself.

"After everything you've been through and you're not a religious man?" Tina asked him, apparently surprised.

Jack gave her his full attention for the first time and looked straight at her. "Excuse me?"

"I know I never said anything but I recognised your picture. From the newspaper. The plane crash," she explained. "None of that, the two and a half years you were missing, none of it ever made you believe in God just a little bit?"

Jack felt like he was telling a five year old he'd just backed over their brand new kitten. "No," he stated simply, unsure of what else he could add.

"You survived the plane crash, you survived the wilderness or whatever it was on that island and you never saw a glimmer of hope?" Tina and her ever hopeful eyes stared into Jack.

Hope, Jack thought, that's what Locke was always going on about. But he and Locke never saw eye to eye and he wasn't about to start believing in crazy ideas like that now, he'd seen too much to the contrary.

"I'm sorry, Tina, I have to go," he said, professional head taking over once again. "Good look with your prayer service."

"Thank you, Dr. Shepherd," she said as he started to walk away.

He didn't get very far, however, as he came up behind two doctors he used to work with back in the day. He was about to walk around them when he realised what they were talking about.

"Him? Are you sure?" Dr Joseph Mackel asked as he looked towards the nurse's station, unaware that Jack was behind him.

"I'm sure. When they were first brought in I saw them together," replied Dr Nick Jonsson.

Joseph looked Boone up and down. "He's a bit... pretty, isn't he?"

"He's a bit young, isn't he?" Nick replied.

"He looks like he's barely out of college," Joseph stated.

"He looks like he never even went to college," Nick continued.

"He went to college," Jack said, making the two doctors spin around in shock.

"Jack," Nick stated, clearly a little dazed.

"He also happens to be a very successful business man and the best thing that ever happened to me," Jack continued. "And I think he's totally hot," he added, a little more for effect than anything else.

"Well, that's..." Joseph attempted, but didn't get very far.

"Yeah, how about we keep gossip for the doctor's lounge in future," Jack suggested. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go have lunch with my boyfriend."

He took great pleasure in looking at their faces as he stepped around them. He could probably have gone about that in a better way but Jack was sick of people talking about him behind his back. Jack shouldn't be back at work so soon. Jack should see a psychiatrist about his misadventures. Jack must be a little rusty after so much time away. Jack should be treated very gently in case he snaps. Jack has a boyfriend now, isn't that just the weirdest thing you ever heard? Jack is actually fine but would be greatly appreciative if people would just talk to him like a normal person.

He walked up to the nurse's station where Boone and Maria were laughing about something.

"Hey, sorry, I got a little caught up," Jack said, putting a hand on Boone's hip.

"That's cool," Boone replied.

"Yeah, but if you were much longer I was gonna take him to lunch myself," Maria said with a smile.

Jack liked Maria. They both started on Monday and she was the only person that looked him in the eye rather than giving him sideways glances. There wasn't any history or expectations between them and he felt like he could just be himself around her. And even though she knew about the crash and the island, she never treated him any different than anyone else.

"So, you ready now?" Boone asked him.

Jack smiled at him. "Definitely." 


	8. Chapter 8

Boone picked at his food, not really feeling hungry. He looked up at Jack who was literally shovelling his lunch into his mouth.

"You in a rush?" Boone asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jack looked up at him. "What?" he asked.

"You might wanna consider chewing that," Boone stated.

"I'm chewing," Jack replied, though Boone noticed a slight decline in his food intake.

"So, work's going okay?" Boone asked.

"Yeah, great," Jack replied. "Well, I mean, it's hard work and all but it's nice to get back in the saddle if you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," Boone replied, looking back down at his plate. He had no idea what that meant. He had no idea what it was like to have a calling. To have a choice in what you wanted from life. Sure, Jack had talked about how his parents figured it was pretty much a given that he would follow his father into medicine but Boone could tell that Jack really did love his job, however he got into it, so it wasn't really the same thing.

"You okay?" Jack asked him.

Boone looked back up and attempted a smile. "Yeah," he said, trying to sound breezy. Apparently he failed.

"Boone, what's wrong?" Jack asked, concern all over his face.

Boone didn't like that. Sure, it was great that Jack was concerned about him but now he felt bad for making Jack feel bad. He hated making Jack feel bad.

"Nothing," he replied with a shrug, looking back down, pretending he was concentrating on his food, even though he couldn't really stomach it right now.

Jack leaned forward slightly and Boone could tell he was trying to catch his eye. "What are you thinking?" Jack asked gently. It was his 'no pressure' tone of voice. God Boone hated that, it worked every time.

He looked back up to meet Jack's eyes. "I'm thinking, I'm gonna have to go back to work soon. I mean, I can't keep putting Sabrina off much longer," Boone replied.

"You don't want to go back?" Jack asked him.

Boone let out a small laugh. "You know, I don't think I've wanted to go into that office a single day since I started working there," he explained, a little amused at the concept.

Jack looked at him. "Then why did you go?" he asked.

"What option did I have? You think my mom seriously sat me down and 'offered' the job to me? No. She sat me down and said 'Hey kid, here's the rest of your life, have fun with that.'" Boone responded, a little agitated. God, he'd wanted to say that for a long time.

"Boone, you don't have to go back there. I've talked to Sabrina, she seems like she'd be okay with it," Jack responded, earning him a sarcastic look from Boone. "She's just happy to have you back, I think she'll be open to negotiating a little leeway."

"Sabrina Carlyle does not negotiate," Boone stated matter-of-factly. End of story.

"I think she wants you to be happy," Jack responded. "I mean, she didn't freak out about us, did she?"

"That's only because she's so scared of being alone cos everyone always leaves her," Boone replied, thinking back to his father.

"Exactly. You're much more likely to stick around if she let's you be your own person and do what you want to do," Jack explained to him.

"Maybe," Boone conceded. It did make sense. Well, between normal people anyway. He still wasn't sure it would make sense in Sabrina Carlyle's world.

"Boone, you can do anything you want," Jack stated.

And therein lies the problem, Boone thought, looking back down again.

"What?" Jack asked in that stupid concerned voice again.

"I just... I have no idea. I don't know what I want to do, no one ever gave me the option of thinking about it before," Boone replied, realising how lame that sounded.

"So, take some time, think about it. There's no rush to get your life back on track here. You're doing fine. And if it makes you feel any better, it's been pointed out that I'm insane for wanting to go back to full-time work so soon," Jack said light-heartedly.

Boone looked back up at him and smiled. "You're not insane," he said.

"Really?" Jack asked. "I'm not so sure. I mean, the people on the 'Jack lost his marbles on the island' bandwagon totally outweigh me on that one."

"You're not insane," Boone insisted, and then suddenly started worrying that maybe Jack was insane and that's the only reason he was ever interested in Boone in the first place.

"Maria's the only one who seems to think I might be slightly capable still," Jack said. "Not that she has anything to compare my current state with."

"She seems nice," Boone said.

"Yeah, she's nice. But don't you be getting any ideas," Jack joked.

Boone smiled a little coyly. "She wants me," he stated, trying to look serious. Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "She does," Boone shrugged.

"Well she's not having you," Jack replied.

Boone smiled and shook his head. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note: Just a quick note to say another thanks for my reviews, really appreciate it and it's good to know that someone's enjoying my story. I'd write this for one person so two is twice as good. And I know that the last chapter was rather short but hopefully this will make up for it. Enjoy...**

Jack got himself some cereal and sat at the breakfast bar by Shannon who was gossiping on the phone whilst giving herself a manicure. Old habits die hard, Jack guessed.

"So what's the deal with it then?" Shannon asked, holding the cordless phone in place with her shoulder as she painted her nails. "I think that's a little unfair. I mean, you'd think they'd go easy on you considering everything." She blew on her wet nails while she listened. "I guess. I don't really think it's fair though," she continued, surveying her nails. "Hey, Jack's here by the way, you wanna talk to him?"

Jack looked up. Who was Shannon talking to that would want to talk to him? Must be someone from the island he reasoned. There was no way he and Shannon would have anyone in common pre-crash.

"Okay, well I'll tell him you said 'hi'. Give my love to Charlie and Aaron," Shannon said.

Oh, Claire, Jack thought.

"Bye," Shannon said, hanging up the phone carefully, ever mindful of her wet nails. "Claire says 'hi'," she relayed, looking over to Jack.

Jack gave a small nod. "How's she doing?" he asked.

"Fine," Shannon replied, starting on her other hand. "Her and Charlie want to settle in LA with Aaron but their having green card problems, you know, her being from Australia, him being from Britain..."

"Yeah, I guess it's gonna be hard for the two of them to find a place they can call home," Jack replied, feeling a little sorry for them. He'd never really stopped to appreciate the fact that he and Boone both lived in LA pre-crash.

"I think they thought LA would be a nice middle ground but the US government begs to differ," Shannon said. "Sucks for them."

"Speaking of which, what about Sayid?" Jack asked aware that he, strictly speaking, didn't have his green card either.

"We're getting married so apparently they're willing to clear it. What with all the media and everything, plus the baby, I guess, they're pretty sure it's for real," Shannon explained.

"Well, that's something," Jack said.

Sabrina entered the room and got herself some juice, standing opposite Jack and Shannon. "So, where is my work shy son this morning?" she asked.

"He's sleeping," Jack replied, trying to think of some kind of spin he could put on it. "I think he's been up late reading Tom Sawyer," Jack said, somehow hoping this made Boone sound better.

"Ooh, Sawyer, I have to phone him," Shannon said, picking up the phone again.

"You have Sawyer's number?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, before we left the hospital I got everyone to give me a contact number. I want to stay in touch," Shannon explained as she dialled a number and waited on the line.

Jack thought that was pretty sweet. He hadn't imagined Shannon to be the sentimental type. After all, she apparently spent most of her life moving around, setting up home before getting Boone to bail her out.

"So he's just going to sleep all day?" Sabrina asked.

Jack looked up at her a little clueless. Oh, right, Boone, he thought. "No, he'll probably be in the shower by now actually," Jack said, knowing Boone was probably sleeping like a baby right now.

"He's not in," Shannon said as she put the phone down.

"I wish he'd sort himself out," Sabrina said. "I know you've all been through a lot but everyone else seems to be getting on with it. All he does is sit around the house all day looking fed-up with himself."

Boone was looking fed-up? Sure, Jack knew he was pretty down yesterday but before that?

"He's probably just holding off until he gets laid," Shannon said casually.

Both Jack and Sabrina both turned to look at her.

"Excuse me?" Sabrina asked, clearly a little thrown.

"Wait, what?" Jack asked.

"Sorry, Jack, I probably shouldn't have said that in front of you," Shannon said, starting to apply a second coat to her nails.

"Me? What about his mother? You don't think that's inappropriate?" Jack asked. Shannon could say some pretty stupid things but why would she offhandedly announce something like this? Shannon was about to reply but Jack cut her off. "Never mind. Did he say something to you?"

Shannon wasn't meeting Jack's eyes. Well, at least she has enough sense to know that she's done something wrong, Jack thought.

"Not much," Shannon said.

Jack looked at her for a beat. Okay, he was a very bad boyfriend. Sabrina knew he was upset about something, a fact that Jack had only noticed yesterday, and he'd talked to Shannon about their sex life, something Jack hadn't considered a problem until this very second, so Jack was going to go out on a limb and guess that Boone was upset at their lack of sex life. Well, I guess it had been... Jack thought about it. They hadn't had sex since they left the island. Jack was a very bad boyfriend indeed.

"Excuse me," he said as he stood up and left the kitchen.

He found Boone in the bedroom, sat at his desk, his laptop open in front of him.

"Hey," Jack said as he walked into the room and shut the door. He went straight up to Boone and gave him a long but rather chaste kiss on the lips. Boone seemed a little taken back but soon melted into the kiss, much to Jack's pleasure. As he pulled away Boone looked up at him, a little dazed.

"What was that for?" he asked.

Jack shrugged. "I dunno. I figure I don't do it enough," he replied.

"Well, feel free to do it whenever you want," Boone said with a smile as he turned back to the laptop. "Dammit," he said.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked, looking at the computer screen.

"I'm trying to check my e-mails," Boone replied. "The stupid wireless isn't working again. That thing's useless, I may as well plug it into the wall and have done with it," he ranted on.

"Come here, Boone," Jack said.

Boone looked up at him again. "Where's here?" he asked. "I am here."

"Come here. Give me a hug," Jack tried.

Boone looked a little confused. "Have you been drinking, Jack?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I can't ask my boyfriend for a hug?" Jack asked. This wasn't exactly going the way he'd planned. But Boone stood up and put his arms around Jack so he guessed he could still pull it back on track. He wrapped Boone up in his arms and felt him lean into him, holding on tight. Jack put his mouth up to Boone's ear. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Why are you sorry?" Boone asked, not moving.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been spending as much time with you as I should. I'm sorry that I put all my energy into myself and my job and I kind of left you out of the whole thing," Jack said, loving the way Boone felt, so warm against him and how he smelt so good even though he hadn't had a shower yet.

"You don't have to be sorry about any that," Boone stated. "You treat me better than anyone else ever has."

"Well then that's not fair," Jack said, pulling away slightly so he could look Boone in the eyes. "Boone, hasn't anyone ever told you how special you are?"

Boone shrugged. "Who would tell me?" he asked simply, but it seemed more of a statement than a question.

"Your mom?" Jack suggested.

"You've met my mom, she's not one for feeling words," Boone pointed out.

"What about your dad?" Jack wondered if he should have asked that. Boone had once mentioned that he understood Jack's father issues but other than that his dad had never been mentioned.

Boone looked down. "I don't think he thought I was so special seeing as he skipped out on me and my mom when I was five," he said, though he didn't sound as sad as he should have.

"Boone, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot, I shouldn't have mentioned your father," Jack said, pulling Boone in close again, wanting to make it better. He once told Boone that he would fix him and he wasn't going to stop until he'd completed his mission. He's saved his life that night but that didn't mean he'd fixed it all.

"It's okay, Jack," Boone said, really sounding as though it was. "If my dad hadn't left then my mom would never have married Adam and I would never have met Shannon and she would never have made me go to Australia to con me out of 50 thousand dollars and we would never been on that stupid flight and I never would have met you," he concluded. "So really, he totally did me a favour."

Jack smiled. He couldn't really argue with logic like that. "Well, just for the record, I think you're special," he said, and suddenly Boone was kissing him. He pulled Jack in as tight as he could and ran his hands all over his body. Okay, Jack thought, maybe there was a little pent-up sexual tension. Jack reciprocated ten fold and they managed to stumble their way over to the bed, their shirts getting lost somewhere along the way.


	10. Chapter 10

Boone couldn't keep the goofy grin off his face as Jack placed a kiss on his forehead and rolled off him, breathing heavily. Boone caught his own breath again before rolling onto his side and snuggling up to Jack, placing his head on his shoulder. Jack wrapped his arm around him and pulled him closer.

"That was nice," Boone said.

"Nice? You told me nice was a word your mother would use," Jack replied.

"Okay, it was dirty and wrong," Boone corrected.

He saw Jack smile. "That's more like it," he said.

Boone loved Jack's smile and Jack didn't smile nearly as much as he should. In fact Jack could be overall too serious for his own good. But then Jack had a pretty responsible job when it came down to it. Boone knew all about pressure, if he screwed up, he tended to take a couple's most special day with him. But then, that hardly compared to Jack. If he put his scalpel a little too far to the left he paralysed someone for the rest of their lives. That was probably worse, Boone reasoned. God, he needed to get a new job. Well, first he had to work out what the hell it was he wanted to do. Actually, first he had to tell Sabrina he was quitting the job he had.

He moved over slightly and put his head on Jack's chest, listening to the little ba-dum, ba-dum, ba-dum. His heartbeat had pretty much calmed down to normal again now.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked.

"I can hear your heartbeat," Boone explained.

"Well, good," Jack said. "That means I'm alive."

"Wow, you're a really good doctor," Boone replied sarcastically.

"Mmm," Jack hummed.

"Hey, Jack?" Boone asked, angling his head upwards to look him in the face.

"Uh-huh?" Jack asked, seeming to drift off someplace.

"What do you think you'd be doing if you weren't a doctor?" Boone queried.

Jack looked amused. He opened his eyes slightly to look at Boone. "I don't know, Boone," he said. "Maybe I'd be a pastry chef or something," he shrugged.

"Pastry chef?" Boone asked, a little confused.

"Boone, I'm sleepy, I can't think about things like that right now," Jack whined. Well, it sounded like a whine to Boone anyway.

"You're sleepy?" Boone asked.

"Yeah. Jack sleepy," Jack replied, closing his eyes.

"I thought you didn't sleep anymore," Boone pointed out.

"Well, I think we found something that puts me to sleep," Jack responded.

"In a good way, right?" Boone asked, a little nervous.

Jack smiled. "Yes, in a good way."

"Well," Boone grinned, "I guess we'll just have to do that every night then."

"Oh, believe me, we're gonna be doing that a whole lot more often," Jack assured him. "I'm sorry about the dry spell and everything being so up in the air lately."

"Jack, stop it, you don't have to tell me you're sorry," Boone said. "You don't owe me anything, okay?"

Jack looked him in the eye. "Boone, I didn't do that because I think I owe you. I did it because you're my boyfriend and you're hot and it happens that I haven't noticed that over the past few weeks for whatever reason."

"You know that you could have the whole world, right?" Boone stated. He felt it was only fair that he pointed that out to Jack as Jack, it seemed, could be a little slow on the uptake.

"Boone, what are you talking about?" Jack asked, clearly not getting it.

"Well, it's like, you're a doctor, and not just a doctor, you're a spinal surgeon, which is even more impressive, and you're this hero guy, you're a leader, and you keep a cool head, well, in most situations, and you know what you want so I wanted you to know that you can have what you want, don't let me stop you," Boone rambled on. "I mean, you're not even gay."

"Neither are you," Jack countered.

"I'm more gay than you are," Boone replied.

"Oh, are we having a gayness competition now?" Jack asked light-heartedly.

Boone just stared at him. He so wasn't in the mood for this. And then he suddenly realised what he was doing. He was ruining a special moment with Jack for no apparent reason. He'd been moaning and worrying about the fact that they hadn't had sex post-island and now here he was, basking in all the after-sex loveliness, and he was picking a fight. God, he was such an idiot.

"What's all this about?" Jack asked.

"I don't know," Boone said, wondering why exactly he felt some subconscious need to wreck everything good that ever happened to him. "I just want to know that you know that you have other options," he explained.

"I know," Jack replied. "You seriously think for a second that I'm with you because I have to be? You think this is the easy option? Do you know how much shit I get at work for dating you? Everyone there knows Sarah and now they see me with you, you think that's easy? Boone, nothing about this is easy," Jack stated.

Good one, Boone, he thought, you just destroyed the best thing that ever happened to you. You're never gonna be happy again for a single day for the rest of your life. You will be a shell of a human being.

"But you know what," Jack said. "I think you're worth fighting for."

Boone looked up at him, gauging his face. He seemed serious enough. There was no smirk, no maliciousness. Then Jack looked down to meet Boone's eyes.

"I can only hope that you feel the same way," Jack said.

Boone smiled. "Why do you even bother?" he asked, glad that he did but a little confused. "I'm impossible. People go on about Shannon being a brat, look at the way I go around acting. I think I might just be certifiably insane."

"You're not insane," Jack assured him. "Trust me, it just feels that way. You have a couple of issues, especially involving trust and self worth, but you know what, I am going to be right here to work through them with you. And when you feel ready to tell me those stories that affected your life, I am gonna be all ears," Jack insisted.

Boone mentally beat himself up one more time for being the biggest loser ever and then settled back down, resting his head once again on Jack's chest.

"So can I have my nap now?" Jack asked.

"You can do whatever you want," Boone replied with a contented smile as he closed his eyes.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum. Ba-dum. 


	11. Chapter 11

"Landscape gardener?" Jack suggested, scanning the classifieds in the newspaper.

"I'd get muddy hands doing that, right?" Boone asked as he sorted laundry on the bed, clearly put off.

"Sorry, didn't realise you were a pris," Jack said offhandedly, looking over the remaining options. There weren't many. Boone was a fussy man.

"I'm not a pris. Just cos I don't wanna put my hands in mud," Boone replied. "Or people's chest cavities," he added.

Jack looked over at him. "I don't actually put my hands in people's chest cavities as much as you'd think," he said, turning back to the task in hand. "How do you feel about children?" he asked.

"Children? Messy. And chaotic. And really needlessly noisy," Boone said. "And a lot of them smell."

Jack looked over at him again. "Children do not smell," he said.

"The little ones do," Boone insisted.

"You mean babies?" Jack asked dryly.

"Yeah, them," Boone said, sounding uninterested.

"Right. So I guess fatherhood isn't on your list of things to do anytime soon," Jack said, careful not to phrase it as a question, more a subtle observation. Thing about Boone, things either went completely over his head or he'd pick up on some tiny little detail and obsess about it for days.

"Yeah, us as parents, can you see that?" Boone asked sarcastically.

Not anymore, Jack thought. But then, really, what did he expect? Stupid Jack and his stupid baby obsession. It's just that he couldn't help it. Ever since Sarah had lost that baby, Jack could never really comprehend what had happened to it. Yeah, he knew all the medical jargon, he knew that down to a tee, but what about his baby? He just never got to have it? He never got to be a father because Sarah tripped over her pumps going to answer the door and separated her placenta from her uterus wall? That was it? But Jack didn't believe in fate or destiny or the afterlife so he'd cheated himself out of his own second chance.

"I mean, Shannon having a baby has got to upset the universe enough, I don't think we should be getting in on the act," Boone continued. "Anyway, how would that even work?"

"Surrogacy and adoption are the most common methods," Jack said adsently. He really had put far too much thought into it.

"Mmm," Boone said, sounding uninterested. "There anything else?"

"What?" Jack asked, coming out of a daze.

"Jobs? The paper?" Boone reminded him.

"Oh, right," Jack said. He looked down at the paper and then back up at Boone. "You know what, this is stupid, you wanna go do something?" he asked, putting the paper down on the desk in front of him.

"But you were the one who said we should sit down and find me a job," Boone pointed out. "Plus, I gotta do this laundry."

"The laundry can wait, and you're never gonna find a job," Jack said, standing up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Boone asked.

Oh God, he was doing that stupid wounded look again. Jack felt sorry for Boone and everything but the 'woe is me' routine was starting to wear a little thin.

"Boone, you need to work out what you want from life. Me sitting here reading you jobs from the newspaper is only helping us find out what you don't want apparently," Jack pointed out as gently as he could.

"I don't know what I want, that's the point," Boone explained.

"Well, personally, I wanna get out of this room," Jack stated.

Boone was looking a little pissed off. Oh well, it was better than wounded, Jack reasoned. Jack wasn't going to respond though. No. He was going to make Boone say something, it was his turn to talk. Jack wasn't going to run over and make things better, Boone could use his big boy words. Why wasn't Boone saying anything? Oh, for God's sake...

"What?" Jack asked, more irritated than he intended it to be.

"Nothing," Boone said, going back to folding the laundry.

Great, now he was looking wounded again. Jack should have struck on pissed off. Maybe Jack could piss him off again.

"You know what? You're prissy and spoilt and really immature," Jack said, sounding much like a five year old himself, he noted.

Boone looked back up at him but he didn't look particularly pissed off. In fact he looked a little confused. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm trying to piss you off," Jack replied. Hmm, maybe telling Boone that would affect his result.

Boone just continued to look at him. "Why?" he asked.

All right, Jack was getting pretty pissed off himself at this point. "Because I want you to get angry at me. I want you to yell at me," Jack explained, his own volume starting to near on yelling now.

"Why would you want me to yell at you?" Boone asked.

This was clearly going to be one of the subjects that went over Boone's head. "Because you never do. Whenever I upset you, or anything upsets you, you just look all sad and say, 'oh, it doesn't matter'. It does matter! So when I piss you off you should damn well let me know. Now shout at me." Jack instructed.

"I don't want to shout at you," Boone replied.

"Why not?" Jack asked, getting more exasperated by the second.

"Because I happen to be in love with you!" Boone yelled.

That one stopped Jack in his tracks. Not that it was new information but it wasn't something they said very often either. Jack didn't know why. It's not like they were in denial. And if someone asked Jack he would tell them in a second how much he loved Boone. But they just didn't share it between themselves very often. Maybe it didn't need to be said. Or maybe it was because they were two men. Was the woman usually the one that initiated the whole 'I love you' thing?

And then Jack realised he hadn't spoken for about a minute, which was quite rude under the circumstances, and Boone was staring at him. Right, focus, Jack told himself.

"I..." and then he stopped. Why did he stop? He did love Boone. He really, really did. So why the hell had he stopped talking. The more time he stood here in silence the worse it was looking. For God's sake, finish the sentence, Jack.

"I love you," he finally got. "Too," he added. "I love you too."

"Oh, great," Boone replied. "It only took you five minutes to come to that conclusion."

"It didn't," Jack insisted.

"Then why did you stop talking?" Boone asked.

"I... have no idea," Jack admitted.

Boone rolled his eyes. He wasn't looking wounded though, Jack observed. But right now he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. If Boone had done that to him he was pretty sure he'd be looking wounded right now. Maybe Boone didn't mean it as much as he thought. No, he shouted it in an argument. Things you shout in arguments are the things you tend to mean. You can always trust what someone says to you in an argument much more than you can with pillow talk. So why wasn't Boone more upset? Unless he never expected to be loved back.

"Do you know that I love you?" Jack asked.

"I hope that you do," Boone replied.

"That's not the same thing," Jack pointed out.

"No, it's not," Boone allowed.

"So, what are we going to do about that?" Jack asked.

Boone looked at him levelly. He seemed a little tired. He seemed like he didn't really want to have this conversation right now. Tough, Jack thought, they were doing this.

"You're scared of been left," Jack stated. "Like Sabrina, you're scared of being on your own."

"Have you ever had a relationship that didn't end?" Boone asked.

Well that wasn't fair, Jack thought. How was he supposed to argue with that? He was about to reply but Boone cut him off.

"You got married," Boone pointed out. "Marriage is supposed to last forever, remember? The fact that your here with me right now suggests that it didn't work out that way."

"Look, there were circumstances there," Jack began, really not wanting to get into that whole thing again.

"I know, all right, and I don't really care," Boone replied, and he really sounded like he didn't care all that much. "Relationships end. Everything ends. I love you and I think that you love me so we'll take it from there and see where it goes."

Okay, what happened? How did that turn around to Boone lecturing Jack? Wasn't Jack trying to make Boone feel better? So apparently Jack really sucked at this. But Boone seemed to be feeling better so he guessed that was something.

Jack went back over to the desk and picked up the newspaper, sitting down. "Accountant?" Jack suggested.

"Numbers? Boring," Boone stated as he turned his attention back to folding the laundry. 


	12. Chapter 12

Boone walked up to the nurses station where Maria was doing some filing. She looked up as he approached and flashed him a smile. 

"Hey, Boone," she said.

"Hi," Boone replied.

"Lunch with Jack, right?" she asked cheerily.

"That's it," Boone replied, looking down the hall.

"Out of luck I'm afraid," she said.

Boone looked at her again. "What?" he asked.

"He's got stuck in some complex surgery," she replied, looking at her watch. "He's been in there hours. If you wanna wait though I was just about to take my break, I'll keep you company," she offered. "I'm guessing he won't be that much longer."

Hmm, no Jack. Well, Boone did come all the way down here, he guessed he could stick around a while. Hell, it's not like he had anything better to do with his day. "Yeah, okay," he replied.

"Cool," Maria said. "Follow me." She led him through to the doctor's lounge. "Take a seat," she said as she went over to her locker.

Boone sat down on the sofa and looked at his watch. Okay so he had nothing to do but he'd rather do nothing on schedule. He was used to doing things within a certain time frame. His life was all about dates and meetings and deadlines. Even on the island time mattered. There was a time of day when you were most likely to catch the boar, a time of day you could get more fish, there was the time in the evenings when everyone would seat down together to eat the main meal, when he and Jack would catch up on what they'd been doing. Now all Boone had to report was that they were showing _'I Love Lucy'_ reruns out of order.

"So, how's the job hunt going?" Maria asked as she sat down next to him with her sandwich.

Boone looked up at her, snapping out of his daydream. "Job hunt?" he asked.

"Yeah. Jack mentioned you were looking for a new career path," Maria replied. "You want some of this?" she asked, referring to her lunch.

"No, I'm good," Boone replied. Maria shrugged and tucked in. "So, Jack talks about that then?" Boone asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Maria replied vaguely.

"Did he sound pissed off?" Boone asked.

"Pissed off? Why would he be pissed off?" Maria asked, confused. "He just said that you were wanting to do something different now, which, more power to you, right?"

"Yeah," Boone replied, a little distant. Maybe Jack wasn't mad at him.

"So, what are you wanting to do?" she asked.

Boone looked at her. He kind of wished people would stop asking him that. "I don't know," he replied, hoping she'd drop it. No such luck.

"You don't have an inkling?" she asked.

Oh great, just the conversation Boone wanted to be having again. "No," he replied simply.

"So what did you do before?" she asked.

"I was the CEO of my mother's company," Boone replied.

Maria looked impressed. "CEO? At your age?"

"You heard the part where it was my mother's company, right?" Boone asked, raising his eyebrows.

"So? You still did it, that's pretty impressive," Maria replied.

"It is?" Boone asked. He'd never really gotten any credit for his job let alone thought about giving himself any. He knew, as did everyone else in the company, that he would never have gotten that job if he wasn't Sabrina Carlyle's only son and heir. But he did rise to the occasion and he did prove himself he guessed.

"Sure is," Maria replied. "So, what else?"

Boone looked at her, not getting it. "What else what?" he asked.

"What other jobs have you done?" she clarified.

"Nothing," Boone replied.

"You only ever had one job?" she asked. "Well no wonder you don't know what you wanna do. You gotta fail at a fair few things before you work out which is the right way."

That did make sense, Boone thought. But Boone didn't like failure. Carlyle's didn't fail.

"I was a lifeguard once," Boone said. "In college."

"Yeah?" Maria asked.

"Yeah," Boone replied. "I sucked at it though."

"Well there's one thing you failed at then. Getting closer," Maria said. God she was cheery. "So, helping people, that something you wanna do?"

"I guess. Doesn't everyone want to help people?" Boone asked.

"Guilty in my case. There's only so much dogsbody work you can do and being looked down on you can take if you don't really care about the patients," Maria replied. "But, no, there are a whole world of people that don't want to help anyone but themselves. So it's good you have that. I think that people should do something everyday that's completely selfless."

"Can you do something that's selfless? I mean really?" Boone asked.

"Probably not. I mean, I help someone else it gives me a buzzy feeling but I don't do it for the buzzy feeling, I do it to help them. I think," she said.

Wow, Maria was a really good person. Selfless acts, that was such a noble thing to do. Maria really wanted to help people in a way that Boone could never know about.

She smiled at him. "What'cha thinking?" she asked.

God that was a beautiful smile. And Boone wasn't exactly sure what happened next but at some point in the next few seconds he leaned forward and kissed her. Her lips where soft and seemed to instantly reciprocate. She had long hair that Boone could put his fingers in and she seemed to smell of sherbet for some reason. And what the hell was Boone doing? Yesterday he was telling Jack that he didn't trust his declarations of love and now he was kissing his hot work friend. Maria really was hot. And a good kisser. And why was Boone still kissing her?

He pulled away and looked at her, more than a little embarrassed and quite stuck for words. She just looked right back at him, apparently not entirely sure what to make of the situation herself.

"Oh God, shit, please don't tell Jack that happened. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, that was stupid, please, please, please don't tell Jack," Boone pleaded. He was officially the biggest idiot ever. Not to mention a huge, huge hypocrite.

Maria smiled at him. "Do you think I'm stupid? Like I'm gonna tell Jack I made out with his boyfriend. He'd probably stab me to death with a scalpel. And that would probably take a really long time cos those blades are really small," she said.

"So you're not going to say anything?" Boone asked.

"No," Maria replied, shaking her head. "What would I say? 'Hey Jack, you know the love of your life? Well me and him made out in the doctor's lounge'. I don't think that would go down very well somehow."

Boone looked at her, intrigued. "Did he, erm... Did he tell you he loved me? Loves me?" he asked.

"He doesn't have to say it," Maria explained. "I hate those people that go around saying 'I love you' all the time. What's the point? It doesn't mean anything. Every time you use that word you just devalue it a little more. Love isn't something you say, it's something you show. It's in all the little moments."

Right, Boone thought. That made sense. Anyone can say 'I love you', which is why Boone had such an issue with being able to tell if people meant it or not. It was a stupid word that brought about so much anxiety but maybe there was a better system. Maybe you didn't have to listen to how they said it or when they said it or how much they said it. Maybe love was in other stuff, not in a stupid phrase.

"Like when he sits around and helps you find a job even when you're as uncooperative as hell. Or when he gives you a foot massage even though he's just done an eleven hour shift and you've been sat on your ass all day. Or when calls you up in the middle of the day just cos he was bored and his mind drifted and he wanted to say 'hi'. Or when he goes to five different stores on his way home from work cos he wanted to find the candy that you always talked about loving when you were a kid but couldn't find anymore," Boone said, getting the hang of it. And he had a million more examples to boot.

"Yeah, that's it," Maria said. "He sounds like he's a good boyfriend."

"He's the best boyfriend," Boone replied. "And I don't think that I show him in enough ways."

"Oh, you should hear the way he talks about you," Maria said. "I think he knows."

"Well, I'm not really willing to take the chance. I'm gonna make sure he knows," Boone insisted. He was going to stop being such a whiny brat and get on with his damn life. Jack showed him how much he loved him a hundred times a day and Boone was busy worrying about it that he missed all the signs. "And I'm sorry," he said, turning his attention back to Maria. "About the whole kissing you thing. I don't know why I did that."

"Don't worry, I promise not to tell," Maria said. "You just hold onto what you got there. Cos life doesn't throw you a whole lot of second chances so when something good happens you should always hold onto it with both hands."

"You're so together, you know that?" Boone commented. "How are you still single?"

"Who said I was single?" she asked coyly.

Boone looked at her. "You have a boyfriend?" he asked, images of heavyweights running through his head.

She smiled at him. "Cupcake?" she asked, offering one up to him.

Boone smiled back and nodded a little. "Sure," he replied.


	13. Chapter 13

Jack was fairly sure he was in trouble. Not that it was his fault some twelve-year-old kid got involved in a pileup and required immediate spinal surgery, but if there was one thing Boone liked to hammer home to anyone who'd listen, it's that appointments mattered. He had tried calling in the afternoon but Boone was out. Or wasn't picking up.

Jack headed for the bedroom where Boone was probably hiding and sulking. He opened the door and Boone looked up at him. And smiled. Well, that was nice.

"Hey," Boone said, putting down his book.

"Look, I'm really sorry about lunch, there was nothing I could do about it," Jack began.

"Don't worry about it, it's your job, it's not a problem," Boone replied.

"Yeah," Jack said, a little unsure. What happened to his crazy, uptight, sulk of a boyfriend?

"Tough day then, huh?" Boone asked.

"Yeah, you could say that," Jack conceded.

"So, shower or bath?" Boone asked.

Jack looked at him. "What?"

"You need to unwind. Shower or bath?" Boone repeated.

Okay, this was new. Not that Jack was complaining, he could get used to having Boone run around after him, but he wondered what he'd done to deserve it.

"Bath," he replied. "I do not want to stand up for a second longer than I have to."

"Okay," Boone said, leaping to his feet. He moved over to Jack and gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading into the en suite.

Jack went over to the bed and sat down, taking off his shoes. He heard water start running in the next room and then Boone reappeared. He came over and sat next to Jack on the bed.

"You beat?" he asked.

"I guess," Jack replied. "I've had worse days." He noticed Boone was looking at him. He turned to face him. "What?" he asked.

Boone shook his head a little and looked away. "Nothing," he replied.

Okay, Jack thought. Boone wasn't mad at him, that much was clear, but there was definitely something going on that he wasn't privy to.

"So what did you do today?" Jack asked him, hoping to shed a little light on Boone's behaviour.

"Oh, nothing really," Boone replied. "The hospital visit was pretty much the most exciting part of my day."

"Yeah, visit with Maria, right?" Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Boone looked at him a little too sharply. "What?" Boone asked, apparently a little nervous.

"Maria said she had lunch with you today," Jack replied.

"She told you that?" Boone asked, looking a little worried.

"Yeah," Jack replied, trying to stifle a yawn. "Why? What's up?"

"Did she say anything about me?" Boone asked.

"Why, you want me to set you up with her?" Jack joked.

"I don't even like girls," Boone replied.

"What, you don't like girls now? What did she do to you at lunch?" Jack asked. It wasn't like Boone to claim he was gay. Bi, sure, but he always made sure to bring up an ex-girlfriend every once in a while. Jack wasn't sure if it was conscious or not but he thought it was cute as hell.

"Can we talk about something else, please?" Boone requested.

Sometimes teasing Boone could be fun but he was too tired to keep up with it right now. "Sure," he replied. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know. Anything. What have you been up to today?" Boone asked him, his good mood picking up again. "Spinal surgery aside," he added.

"Spinal surgery aside, not a whole lot," Jack replied. "And how come you're so chipper today, anyway?"

"I'm just in a good mood," Boone replied.

"Apparently so," Jack agreed.

"It's just that, it turns out I'm an idiot. I know, big shock, right? And I always tell myself that I'm idiot but I think I really am," Boone replied, though he looked like he was talking more to himself then to Jack.

"I don't think you're an idiot, Boone," he replied. Boone could do idiotic things but Boone wasn't an idiot. There was a difference. It was subtle but it was there.

"Okay, first of all, if you don't know I'm an idiot then you're an idiot too and second of all you have to let me finish," Boone explained.

Jack waved his hand. "Go ahead," he responded.

"So, I'm an idiot, right?" Boone began. He then shot a look at Jack. "Rhetorical question, don't answer." Jack nodded his understanding and looked to him to continue. "But the thing is, now I know I'm an idiot. That's a big step forward. See, now I can do something about it."

"Boone, I don't really know what you're going on about," Jack admitted, leaning in a little.

Boone rolled his eyes. "I'm self-centred. I think the world revolves around me and I don't even notice I'm doing it. I sit here and overanalyse everything until I'm convinced that the whole world's against me. And I put you through hell, I was horrible to you. I didn't mean to do all that," he explained.

"You're not self-centred," Jack said. "You always try and help. You try harder than anyone I know."

"But I fail at everything," Boone said, almost slipping into his old whine.

Jack shook his head. "Not everything," he said and he hoped Boone could see how much he meant it. Judging by the smile he got he guessed he could tell a little.

"Well, anyway, I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm gonna start acting like a grownup," Boone insisted. "I'd like to point out that I wasn't always this way," he added. "You think I represented myself like this when I ran a company?"

Jack smiled a little. "I hope not," he said.

"There are certain situations where I can actually behaviour like a proper human being," Boone carried on.

"Wow, can't wait to see one of those," Jack joked.

Boone smiled at him which was nice to see. Boone didn't smile nearly as much as he should in Jack's opinion. And he wasn't exactly sure where Boone had got all these crazy ideas from but he had to say that he loved this new attitude. It was refreshing and, Jack had to admit, pretty sexy.

"You just gotta do me one favour, okay?" Boone asked, a little more serious.

"Okay," Jack replied, looking Boone in the eye. "What?"

"You gotta not be my knight in shining armour," Boone said. "You gotta stop being so nice to me all the time cos it's not helping anyone."

Jack was confused. "Okay, you lost me again there," Jack admitted.

"You always want to look after people and save people. You want to fix everyone. Which is great. But I think I maybe need to fix myself," Boone explained. "Don't make allowances for me cos I have these issues. All your doing is making it okay for me to hide stuff from you."

"I understand if you don't want to tell me everything, Boone. It's not like you know every detail of my life either," Jack said.

"Well maybe there's some stuff you need to know. Some stuff I want you to know. Cos I only ever had one real, strong, solid relationship before and it didn't end well," Boone explained.

Jack nodded. Sapphire. Boone had mentioned various stories about her and referred to her as the love of his life once upon a time.

"That's where I get a lot of my issues from," Boone admitted. "And it's not really her fault, in her situation I think I would have done the same thing."

"What did she do?" Jack asked, instantly regretting it. Boone was finally starting to open up to him and he had to push his luck.

Boone stood up. "I have to turn that bath off," he said, heading towards the en suite. He heard the water turn off and then he heard Boone's voice again. "I'll tell you about Sapphire while I do your back."

Jack smiled. Now that sounded like a plan. He forced himself to his feet and headed to the bathroom. 


	14. Chapter 14

"You know when you fall out of love with someone?" Boone began. He thought he saw Jack nod but he couldn't be sure as he could only see him out of the corner of his eye. Not that he was deliberately not looking at him, it was comfier to sit with his back against the side of the tub like this. "Well, it's like that I guess," he said. He wasn't really sure how to tell this story. "Okay, I don't remember what I told you about Sapphire, probably not much, so I'm just gonna start at the beginning." 

"Okay," Jack said.

"So we met in high school. Senior year. Her mom was some new age crazy who actually believed in birthstones and had this whole healing crystal thing going on and she ran what had just become a chain of alternative therapy centres. So Sapphire and her mom move to LA on the money Jill, that's Sapphire's mom, had got out of Sapphire's dad in the divorce. And I met her that first day of school. She was in my European history class and she walked in and she just kind of shined. I know that sounds lame as hell but there was something about her. She was just... I don't know." Boone realised that if Jack were talking about Sarah in this way he'd probably be having a breakdown right about now, epiphany or not. He glanced at Jack who seemed to be listening intently, no jealousy on his face. Still, Boone thought it was probably best to drop the poetry and stick to the facts.

"Anyway, long story short, we hung out and we liked each other and we ended up getting together. And we were in love. We really were. And I'd never been in love before. I mean, I was only eighteen I guess, but it just really hit me. It was intoxicating, I just wanted to be with her all the time, night and day, forever." He stopped. That was the easy part. That was the fun part. But the whole point was to tell Jack what went wrong with Sapphire, and that wasn't such a happy story.

"We were supposed to get married. Not that we ever got engaged or anything. I mean in the social sense, in the sense that it would look good for our parents to marry us off," Boone continued, realising how ridiculous his life was. "And we wanted to, I guess. We talked about it sometimes. But by the end of our first year at college we didn't talk about so much anymore. We went to different colleges but we were still pretty close by, we'd still see each other and stuff. But it wasn't until that summer that we got to spend a whole lot of time together."

The summer. That summer after their freshman years at college. A lot happened in that first year, the first year's always the hardest. You're forced to grow up so fast, fend for yourself, it was bound to change things. But it wasn't supposed to change him and Sapphire, that was supposed to be solid, that was supposed to last. Boone took a deep breath and tried to finish the story.

"I don't really know what happened, and I guess that's the worst part. If I knew what I did then I could fix it but I really can't work it out. And I've been trying. I've been thinking about it for the last seven years but I don't know what it was that made everything change," Boone explained. He was talking around the point, he knew he was. "I didn't even notice, either. That anything had changed. We hung out at my house, always my house cos her house smelled like incense and stuff, and we went to lunch and we went to the movies and we went shopping and we did all that stuff that people do. And we said 'I love you' cos that's what people say when their in love. But sometime that year, sometime before we got to that summer, she stopped meaning it. And I didn't notice that either."

Boone stopped. He wasn't sure what else to add. Not that that was the end of the story he supposed but nothing after that point seemed to matter to him.

"She told you she loved you when she didn't love you?" Jack asked after a long silence. He was probably making sure that Boone had finished.

"Yeah, that's the short version," Boone said with a slightly ironic smile.

"Boone, I wouldn't do that," Jack assured him.

"I don't think you'd do it on purpose. Not to hurt me or whatever," Boone replied. "And I don't blame her for what she did," he continued. "I mean, hell, she barely did anything. I just don't think people should say it if they don't mean it. Cos if people just going around saying it when it's not true then how the hell are you supposed to know when it is true? And how are you supposed to know if it stops being true?" he asked, getting a little heated.

"I don't know," Jack admitted. "I guess you don't. But that's where the trust comes in."

"Yeah. Trust. I'm gonna try doing that more often," Boone said. "I know you've never given me any reason to doubt you but Sapphire never gave me any reason to doubt her either."

"I know," Jack said, nodding.

"But I'm trying this new thing where I have faith in people so just bear with me," Boone asserted.

Jack smiled at him. "So, I thought you were gonna do my back."

Boone turned to fully face him finally and returned his smile.

"You know," Jack began, "It would probably be easier if you just got in here with me."

"No arguments from me," Boone shrugged, standing up. He pulled his T-shirt over his head. Yep, he'd definitely make sure Jack slept very well tonight.

The next morning, Boone was sat in the kitchen when he heard the front door open.

"Boone, you here?"

Shannon. So apparently she hadn't given her key back to Sabrina when she moved out. She came through to the kitchen where she saw Boone.

"Oh, good, you're in," she said. "Right, where else would you be?" she asked, more to herself than to him.

"Hey, Shan, what's up?" he asked, not looking away from his newspaper.

"Well, Sayid's at work and I'm heavily pregnant so I thought I'd enlist your help," Shannon stated.

"Help with what?" Boone asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"I thought you could help me decorate Zara's nursery," she suggested.

Boone looked up at her. "Who the hell's Zara?" he asked. Shannon fixed him with a stare and put a hand on her stomach. Boone looked at the bump. "Oh, the baby," he realised. He looked up at her again. "So you named it Zara?"

"_Her_," Shannon corrected. "I named _her_ Zara." Boone nodded a little. "It's Arabic for princess so I figured it fit me and Sayid pretty well," she explained.

"You got a point there," Boone conceded. "Cool name."

"So, you in?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Boone replied. "Just let me get my keys."

Shannon showed him the blank nursery, the teddy wallpaper that Boone found a little contrived and the general fittings and fixtures she planned to finish the room with. She then mysteriously disappeared which was so typical of Shannon. Right, Boone, give her a hand. He was clearly decorating on his own.

But he had nothing better to do so he got on with it. Once he got the hang of the wallpaper paste and found a system to hang it properly he found he got through it pretty quickly. He surveyed his work and felt pretty damn proud. It'd been a while since he'd actually achieved anything, he noted.

Then he figured, seeing as Shannon showed no signs of returning anytime soon, that he may as well put the room together so he got to work making the crib. Which, to be honest, he didn't see going well, but if there's one thing Boone was unerringly good at it was following instructions. So, before he knew it, he had constructed a lovely crib for baby Zara. He then dressed it with some bedding that Shannon had bought and sat a teddy at the foot of the bed. He moved the changing table into position and took a look around. It looked great, even if he did say so himself. He was sticky with paste and a little sweaty and he probably smelt but the room was awesome and that outweighed anything else.

"Oh my God, you finished it all!" Shannon exclaimed.

Boone turned around to see her stood in the doorway.

"Oh, you decided to come back then?" he asked sarcastically.

"Boone, this is beautiful. You did a great job," Shannon smiled, looking really pleased and making Boone a little more proud in the process.

"Well, y'know," Boone replied modestly, though he wanted to get all excited and gush over the whole thing. In fact, part of him wanted to claim the room as his own. It was pretty hard work and to see your hard work in solid form like this everyday must be pretty nice.

Shannon came over to him, huge smile on her face. "Thank you so much, Boone. She's gonna love it," she told him.

"I don't think baby's really care that much," Boone began. "I mean, look at Aaron on the island, he had none of this and he got on just fine."

Shannon looked him in the eye. "She'll love it," she insisted. Boone smiled and she put her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. "Thanks big bro," she said.

Boone looked around the room. He was good at something after all. And he wanted his own reminder of that fact.


	15. Chapter 15

So Claire and Charlie never got their green cards. But, as it turned out, that was okay. There was a better plan. The two of them had decided to head back to Australia where Charlie would apparently be welcomed by the local government. Maybe they were Driveshaft fans, Jack mused. Anyway, it made sense for the pair of them to relocate to Sydney. Claire's family was there, never having had the pleasure of meeting Aaron, and Charlie had a brother over there, so they could both feel at home.

Saying goodbye to their fellow castaways was going to be hard, however, but they were going to do it in style. Boone had used his old business contacts to get them some good deals and they were going to have a farewell party that no one would be forgetting easily. All the survivors had RSVP-ed so it would undoubtedly be an interesting night. Well, everyone but Kate that was, for obvious reasons. Even if someone did know where to send Kate's invite, a get-together of flight 815 survivors would be the first place the FBI would look for her. Jack didn't know how she managed to evade the marshal who was watching her at the hospital but, by her own admission, she'd been on the run pretty much as long as she'd been able to walk so Jack guessed she was doing okay, wherever she was.

"You ready?" Boone asked him.

He turned to look at him. The boy scrubbed up nice. "Sure am," Jack replied. He reached for the car keys but Boone grabbed them.

"I'll drive," he said.

Jack wondered why he was so eager but shrugged it off. "Okay," he said as he grabbed his jacket. "Let's get out of here."

As they arrived, the first person they saw was Sawyer. Well isn't that typical, Jack thought.

"Looky here," Sawyer said as he sauntered up to them. "If it isn't Dr. Jack and his significant other."

"Sawyer," Jack nodded.

Sawyer looked to Boone. "You and sis really did well for yourselves on that island, didn't you? Both hooked yourselves up with some eligible bachelors."

Boone gave him a sarcastic smile but chose to not get involved.

"Speaking of island couples," Jack begun with a smile, "How is Ana-Lucia?"

That earned him a glare. "How do you suppose I know?" Sawyer asked coldly.

Him and Ana were a funny pair, both so insistent on keeping everything a secret, even though everyone else so blatantly knew what was going on. But Jack knew from Shannon that Sawyer and Ana had the same contact number so they'd clearly gotten closer on the island than they were willing to admit to.

"I'm heading to the bar, I'll catch up with your Captain and Tennille routine later," Sawyer said, walking away from them.

Jack looked around the room, every face so familiar to him that he wasn't sure where to start. It was a little strange being in a situation like this with the other islanders. It didn't feel quite real somehow.

"Hey guys, is this cool or what?" Jack turned to see a rather hyper Shannon bounding towards him with a considerably less enthusiastic Sayid lagging behind her.

"You know you really shouldn't be talking drugs in your state, Shan," Boone joked. "Think of the baby."

Shannon play punched him on the arm. "Shut up," she responded. "Besides, chance would be a fine thing. I can't even have a drink tonight. It's been over two and a half years since I had alcohol admittedly but still, a glass of wine with old friends would be nice," she rambled on.

"Another nine weeks," Sayid reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah," she said.

Jack thought her enthusiasm was sweet. She had the air of a little kid around her.

"Well, me and Sayid are gonna do a lap, catch you boys later," Shannon announced, dragging Sayid along with her.

Jack and Boone both stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Drink?" Boone suggested.

"Drink," Jack agreed.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Walt had missed almost three grades by the time they got back to civilisation so Michael had decided that it was probably just best to home school him as he supposed that's what they'd been doing on the island. He still made sure Walt got to hang out with kids his own age though.

"Not that he wants to all that much," Michael admitted. "That kid grew up so much in those two and a half years, it must have been hard having no one but adults to socialise with."

"I think he already had a fair bit of maturity in him," Jack pointed out. "A lot of other kids wouldn't have been able to handle that."

"Yeah, I guess his mother did okay by him," Michael replied, gazing over at Walt who was saying something to Claire that was making her giggle.

"You did okay by him yourself, Michael," Jack assured him. "Under the circumstances I think you did pretty amazing by him."

Michael smiled in thanks but didn't reply. Jack knew how hard it was on Michael when Walt went missing, how much he beat himself up over it. Jack could relate. He took responsibility for everything that happened to everyone on that island. It wasn't easy being responsible for others.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Jin probably had it hardest on the island though, Jack reflected. After Sun was killed it was pretty impossible for him to communicate with anyone. So when he trekked back to base camp with the tail end survivors to find he was just a day too late to ever see his wife again, he couldn't even alleviate his grief a little by talking about it with someone. But he'd managed to pick up some English as he went along. He had to. Miscommunications had too dire consequences on that island.

"Jack," Jin said with a smile, shaking his hand as he bowed his head.

"Jin," Jack greeted back. "How are you?" He made sure to speak clearly, Jin's English was still very rusty.

"Ah, good, good," Jin replied. He motioned to Jack. "You?"

"Couldn't be better," Jack replied. Then added, "Good," just to clarify.

Jin nodded. "Boone?" he asked.

"With Ana-Lucia," Jack replied pointing over. He noticed that Sawyer was starring daggers at Boone's back. That southern idiot sure had some issues. "You staying in America now?" Jack asked, turning his attention back to Jin.

"America? No. Korea. Father," Jin replied.

Father? Jack thought. Strange, he remembered Sun talking about how Jin's father was dead. Maybe he meant Sun's father, he reasoned.

"Good luck," Jack said, hoping he could find some happiness back in his home country.

Jin nodded. "Thank you," he replied. "And you. Boone," he said.

Jack smiled. "Me and Boone are good," he stated confidently.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hurley was set for life. Who wouldn't be with all those millions. The crazy guy had actually bought himself his own tropical island. One minus the crazies, monsters and polar bears, Jack hoped.

"Oh yeah, I had a team search the place down, nothing weird going on there," Hurley assured Jack. "I'm not making that mistake twice, dude."

"I bet it's nice to enjoy a tropical island without all those threats hanging over your head all the time," Jack stated. "Not that we'd know," he added.

Hurley laughed a little. "No. But I thoroughly intend to find out," he insisted. "Just with a little air-conditioning this time."

"Yeah, those days were too long and too hot," Jack stated. He didn't wish back the days when he was covered in sweat 24 hours a day with no real way to get cleaned. One of the less fun parts of living rough in the south pacific.

"Well, you and Boone are welcome to test out my tropical paradise anytime you want," Hurley informed him. "I'm more than willing to share the Hurley love."

Jack smiled at him. "Good to know," he said. "I might just take you up on that sometime."

"Whenever you want, Doc," Hurley repeated.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"So, what is it you could possibly be doing with yourself now you don't have to kill your own food?" Jack asked Locke, who seemed to be keeping mainly to himself tonight, much like he did on the island.

To be honest, Jack couldn't imagine Locke doing anything other than hunting and tracking and managing to make various useful objects out of bamboo. Even before the crash, Jack couldn't imagine how Locke could possibly have spent his days. How could a man like Locke survive amongst all these buildings?

"Haven't been doing much of anything yet, Jack," Locke admitted. Picturing Locke doing nothing was even harder than picturing Locke doing something mundane. "I've been looking down a few possible avenues though," he continued.

"Oh yeah, and what avenues would those be, John?" Jack enquired.

"Those walkabout tours in Australia. The whole reason I went to Sydney and ended up on that flight. I wanted to take part in one. Now I'm more than qualified to run one," Locke explained.

Jack knew that was true. If he hadn't been on the island they would have probably starved to death. Well, they had the fruit and the fish but big meals would have been few and far between. The group became more experienced at catching the boar without Locke's input as time went on but none of them would have known where to start if it wasn't for him.

"Well, sounds like a dream come true for you," Jack stated.

"Yeah," Locke nodded, a self-assured look on his face. "Yeah, it really is."

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"Well, apparently the American government bloody hates us so good riddance to them I say!" Charlie held his glass aloft, more than a little tipsy.

Jack smiled. Claire, on the other hand, gave him a nudge.

"Hey, don't be like that," she warned him. She then turned to Jack. "We could have argued the toss and all but we figured it was easier this way. It does make sense, we both have family out there. I guess family is important," she said thoughtfully.

Jack knew what she was thinking. Was real family more important than the people on the island? They were more than family to each other, they were a community, they were a civilisation. As far as they were concerned that island would be their home for the rest of their lives. A sobering thought like that can make people bond.

"I'm going to miss everyone though," Claire admitted. "But it's not like we can't see each other again," she added, sounding a little more cheery. "And Hurley's been offering that island of his round so we'll probably all end up there at the same time."

"Yeah, that sounds like some holiday home he's setting up for himself," Jack conceded.

Claire nodded. "I am looking forward to going back though. I've been talking to my mum a lot on the phone and she can't wait to meet Aaron and do the whole proud grandmother thing," she continued. "I can't wait to show him off either," she gushed. "And his daddy," she said, looking over at Charlie who was attempting to down his pint at Hurley's request.

Sure, Charlie wasn't Aaron's biological father, but pretty early on Claire had started to refer to him as daddy in front of Aaron. And it's not like Charlie was complaining, he took up the challenge with all the commitment and enthusiasm of learning a new guitar solo.

The two of them were so lucky to find each other, Jack thought. And he was sure they were each the opposite of what the other was looking for. Claire wanted to give her baby up, not find a sweet and caring guy who wanted to help her look after him, even if he didn't get anything in return. And Charlie, washed up rock star drug addict, to put it bluntly, probably wasn't out looking for a single mother. But they found in each other exactly what they needed. Sounds familiar, Jack thought. Sounds kinda like him and Boone. They sure weren't looking for each other. But sometimes you don't get what you look for. Sometimes you get something better.

Jack headed outside for some air. 


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's note: Well, this is it, the last chapter in my story. I say that, I already have a hundred ideas for follow up stories that I may go into at some point but for now I think this is a nice way to end it. Thanks for all my reviews for this piece, it's nice to know people are liking it. Enjoy...**

Boone was getting restless. He knew that this might be the last time he got to see a few of these people, but he had something else at the back of his mind. He had another reason for tonight to be special, a personal reason. Tonight felt like the end of era. They weren't all just saying goodbye to Claire and Charlie, they were each saying goodbye to each other. They may see each other from time to time, sure, but it was never going to be like it was. Tonight was about saying goodbye to the island.

But when a door closes, another one opens and Boone couldn't wait to show Jack this new door.

Unfortunately he'd gotten stuck talking to Ana-Lucia most of the night. Not that he disliked Ana, he just didn't feel they were particularly close on the island. Then he realised Sawyer staring at the pair of them and figured he was in the middle of some kind of complex mind game. Trust him to find the two psychos in a room full of friendlies and stand in-between them.

He remembered how he'd felt when Sawyer, Michael and Jin brought the tail end survivors to their camp. Or, more specifically, how he'd felt when Ana-Lucia entered their camp and recognised Jack from a flirting session at the bar pre-boarding. Well, wasn't that just fantastic. Back then he and Jack were in the very early stages of a relationship and he'd just gotten used to the fact that Kate wasn't a threat when in waltzed Ana-Lucia to start eyeing up his man.

Not that Jack was interested. Nope, Jack, apparently, was a one man man and no woman was about to change that.

Boone managed to excuse himself from Ana-Lucia's dismal attempt at three hours of small talk and went in search of Jack. He found him sat on the patio, nursing a drink. He looked distant and Boone was just wondering if he should interrupt when Jack noticed him, sending a smile his way.

"Hey," he said, sitting up a little.

"Hey," Boone said, going over to sit next to him.

"Things seem to be winding down in there," Jack commented.

"Yeah," Boone agreed. "I don't think anyone wants to admit it's over though."

"I guess it really is though, huh?" Jack stated. "Over," he clarified. "Our experiences, our connections." He reached over and took Boone's hand. "Well, for most people."

"Yeah, I guess we're one of the lucky ones," Boone conceded, really believing it for once.

"Me and you. Shannon and Sayid. Claire and Charlie, of course," Jack reeled off. "I guess you can count Michael and Walt in the party's not over yet category," he continued. "Then there's Sawyer and Ana-Lucia," Jack added, almost joking.

"Do not mention them," Boone warned.

Jack smiled, clearly amused, but didn't push the subject. They sat in silence for a while, just holding hands and enjoying each others company. Comfortable silence, Boone thought. A nice way to end an evening.

"So, you ready to head home?" Boone asked.

"Yeah, I think it's getting to that time of night," Jack agreed. He put his drink down and turned to Boone. "Let's go say our goodbyes," he declared.

Goodbyes are never easy and Boone didn't like to dwell. They went round and wished people luck and whatnot but the two of them got out fairly quickly. It was pretty emotional in there and it was only going to get worse. It was strange. It was sad and happy at the same time. It was like they were all closing a chapter in their lives but they were opening a new one too. There was hope for the future that they could all feel, even if they didn't want to admit that it was the end for them.

Boone started up the car and drove away from the hotel. Anticipation was making him a little giddy and he couldn't stop smiling.

"What's with you?" Jack asked, looking over at him.

"I've got a surprise for you is all," Boone replied, trying to not give anything away but wanting to shout it out right now.

"Oh yeah?" Jack asked, intrigued.

"Uh-huh," Boone replied with a smug look on his face.

"So what is it?" Jack questioned, searching Boone's face for clues.

"You'll have to wait until we get home," Boone replied simply.

Jack looked at him and seemed to give in. He turned his attention back to the road. Considering this fact it did take a while to realise where they were going. He looked around. "Erm, Boone, I think you took a wrong turn," he stated.

"No I didn't," Boone replied confidently.

"We're going the wrong way," Jack insisted.

"Just trust me, okay?" Boone instructed.

Jack studied his face. "Okay," he conceded, settling back down.

By the time they pulled up at the house Jack was looking very puzzled.

"We're here," Boone announced, getting out of the car.

Jack looked confused and jumped out after him. "Where's here?" he asked, looking around.

Boone took hold of his hand and led him to the driveway of the house. It didn't look it's best at night. Not that it looked particularly good during the day, Boone conceded. But it would.

"What do you think?" Boone asked.

"I think it's a wreck," Jack replied. Well, he had a point there, Boone thought. Jack turned to look at him. "Boone, what are we doing here?"

Boone rolled his eyes. "Because that's what you do at the end of the night," he stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You go back to the place that you live."

"But, Boone, we don't..." and then it clicked. He looked back to the house. "We live here?" he asked.

Boone nodded, a huge smile on his face. "I kinda bought it," he admitted.

Jack looked to check out the house again. "It looks like it might fall down."

"It's not gonna fall down," Boone insisted. "I had a bunch of people come check it out and it's really not as bad as it looks. It's gonna need some work, sure, but I'm up for it."

"Wait, you're gonna do this place up?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I figured it's what I could do," Boone stated. "Cos, y'know, I figured, we're rich, so I don't need to work."

Jack laughed. "You figured that, huh?"

"Hear me out here," Boone pleaded. Jack nodded. "So, we have the money, and I have the time, and I wanna do it. This is what I wanna do. Cos when I was doing Zara's nursery for Shannon I really enjoyed it and it was really great to see the end product. So I wanna do that for us," he explained. "I want my job to be to make us a home."

Jack looked back at the house for what seemed to Boone like far too long. He then looked back at Boone again, raising an eyebrow. "You gonna show me what my home looks like inside?" he asked.

Boone smiled. "Follow me," he said as he dragged Jack up the drive.

He showed Jack the kitchen that need a little plumbing work but most of it was superficial. He showed him the dining room with the original fireplace that he planned on cleaning up. He showed him the living room with the French doors onto the huge but rather overgrown garden. He showed him the bathroom upstairs which was in tact but would need a new suite. He showed him the master bedroom and where he planned to knock through to one of the smaller bedrooms to make an en suite.

"Cos you gotta have an en suite," Boone explained.

"Of course you gotta have an en suite," Jack agreed with a smile.

And then Boone took him into the room opposite the master bedroom and he swore his heart skipped a beat. Not a big deal, he told himself, even though he knew it was a pretty huge deal. He took a deep breath, making sure he was holding onto Jack's hand.

"And this is the nursery," he said, looking carefully at Jack's face.

But Jack didn't get it. "You mean for Zara?" he asked.

"No, Shannon can look after her own brat," Boone stated, a little incredulous. "This is for our brat."

Jack's face was blank. Boone could tell he was trying not to get his hopes up, he knew how much kids meant to Jack.

Jack turned to face Boone. "Our brat?" he asked carefully.

"Look, I'm not talking next week or anything," Boone quickly informed him. "But I've been starting to think about it and it's not absolutely terrifying, which is something. I want to give you what you want."

"I want you," Jack stated. "That's more than enough."

"I know that," Boone replied. "But I want us to have everything. I'm gonna make this into our home, I'm gonna give us a white picket fence, and then we're gonna talk about this brat some more."

Jack smiled which, of course, made Boone smile. They stood there grinning at each like a couple of idiots. A new chapter, Boone thought.

Jack leaned forward and hugged Boone. "Thank you," he said. "This is..." he pulled away a little and looked around. "Boone, this is amazing," he stated.

Boone smiled and pulled him back into the embrace. "I love you," he said into Jack's ear.

"I love you too," Jack replied.

Boone smiled to himself. "I know."


End file.
